The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (190721).VOLUME XVII. Later National Literature, Part II.

XVIII. The Drama, 18601918.

§ 7. The Search for Foreign Plays.

The reasons for the poverty of American plays in the decade 18601870 are thus readily suggested. Our modern native drama did not grow out of literature, as it did in England and in France; it grew out of the theatre, and so it had to bide its time until the theatre found a need for it.